Friday, December 12, 2014

D&C 88:86-87 -- On Repentance and Freedom

"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes.
For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig tree."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:86-87

I like this idea of sin as the opposite of liberty. The symbol of clean hands makes me think of a surgeon. They have to clean their hands very thoroughly before doing their job... it isn't a useless restriction, but instead a necessity if they want to have the best chance of their patients living. It offers freedom to them and to others when they abide by the guidelines. A cleanroom requires similar limits. The workers may, at times, feel that their clothing is a restriction, but without ensuring cleanliness in that environment, many tiny electronic components just wouldn't work.
Sin is similar. If we are clean, then we have opportunities that we wouldn't have otherwise. Sin is what binds us and limits us. Some of the consequences it binds us to are those in the second verse, but we know others from personal experience. Repentance really is having a burden lifted, because God frees us from the consequences of our sin... not so we can turn around and do it again, of course, but as we repent and clean up our lives.
Today, let's remember to value our freedom. Let's clean up our lives and unburden ourselves of the consequences of sin, with God's help.

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The scriptural commentary presented here is based on books of scripture recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so you'll see scriptures from several books like the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, etc.

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